Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), noted for its outstanding properties including high specific strength and superior fatigue resistance, is increasingly employed in aerospace and other demanding applications. This study investigates the interactions between CFRP composites and high-energy lasers (HEL), with continuous wave laser powers reaching up to 120 kW. A novel automated sample exchange system, operated by a robotic arm, minimizes human exposure while enabling a sequence of targeted laser tests. High-speed imaging captures the rapid expansion of a plume consisting of hot gases and dust particles during the experiment. The research significantly advances empirical models by systematically examining the relationship between laser power, perforation times, and ablation rates. It demonstrates scalable predictions for the effects of high-energy laser radiation. A detailed examination of the damaged samples, both visually and via micro-focused computed X-ray tomography, offers insights into heat distribution and ablation dynamics, highlighting the anisotropic thermal properties of CFRP. Compression after impact (CAI) tests further assess the residual strength of the irradiated samples, enhancing the understanding of CFRP’s structural integrity post-irradiation. Collectively, these tests improve the knowledge of the thermal and mechanical behavior of CFRP under extreme irradiation conditions. The findings not only contribute to predictive modeling of CFRP’s response to laser irradiation but enhance the scalability of these models to higher laser powers, providing robust tools for predicting material behavior in high-performance settings.

During laser penetration, the irradiated samples form a melt pool before perforation. Knowledge of the dynamics of this melt pool is of interest for the correct physical description of the process and leads to improved simulations. However, a direct investigation, especially at the location of high-power laser interaction with large spot diameters in the centimeter range is missing until now. Here, the applicability of 2D triangulation for surface topology observations is demonstrated. With the designed bidirectional 2D triangulation setup, the material cross-section is measured by profile detection at the front and back side. This allows a comprehensive description of the penetration process to be established, which is important for a detailed explanation of the process. Specific steps such as surface melting, indentations, protrusions during melt pool development and their dynamics, and the perforation are visualized, which were unknown until now. Furthermore, a scanning 3D triangulation setup is developed to obtain more information about the entire melt pool at the front side, and not just a single intersection line. The measurements exhibit a mirror-symmetric melt pool and the possibility to extrapolate from the central profile to the outer regions in most cases.